Abstract
Voter participation is a critical aspect of elections and democracy worldwide. One of the benefits of elections in a democracy is higher citizens’ participation and ownership of the electoral outcome. Higher turnout rates indicate democratic acceptability and legitimacy of the electoral processes. One of the several processes for voter participation which remains one of the contentious issues in Ghana is over registration. Controversies over foreigners and minors participating in elections in Ghana have been ripe, especially in the Fourth Republican dispensation. This chapter employs a quantitative method to examine how being in a border community influences the turnout rate in an election. Using the 2016 and 2020 presidential election results, we used a cross-sectional design to conduct the analysis. The main variables of interest include the turnout rate of all constituencies in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. We also disaggregate constituencies into border constituencies and non-border constituencies. We also add population and other characteristics data from Ghana Statistical Service.
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Domfe, G., Opoku, K., Alidu, S.M. (2024). Inclusion and Exclusion in Ghana’s Electoral Democracy: An Analysis of Voter Registration and Turnout in Border Communities in Ghana. In: Ayee, J.R., Amoah, L.G., Alidu, S.M. (eds) Political Institutions, Party Politics and Communication in Ghana . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54744-7_8
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